A Chick and A Chair

Poker, from my perspective.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

WPBT Tourney Results

Another great tournament - I wish we had these every couple of weeks. I am going to summarize tomorrow, but I would like to add a bit of a disclaimer to this post, and the ones that will be coming in the next few weeks:Two days ago, I quit smoking. To anyone that is a casual or non-smoker, this may not mean much. However I am one of those die-hard addicts that enjoyed every single drag off every single cigarette I ever had. They say that quitting smoking is more difficult than quitting heroin. Well, I don't have a frame of reference for this statement, but I sure as hell wouldn't doubt it. For 19 of my 33 years I have been a smoker - that is a long, long time to be addicted to something. So forgive me if I am not overly witty, if my writing lacks substance or just plain sucks. I am in a pretty bitchy state of mind right now, one minute I am ok and the next I want to kill/maim/set ablaze anyone or anything. I almost didn't enter the tournament tonight, because I am finding it hard to focus on something for any amount of time. However - that all said, I must say I had a good time as always, and managed to allow myself to slip into a poker haze for a few hours which is always a good thing.

So, more about the tourney tomorrow, but I will end this with my stats for the night - hardly played a hand the entire night!

You finished in 24th place (eliminated at hand #1444961931).

183 hands played and saw flop: - 5 times out of 22 while in small blind (22%) - 4 times out of 22 while in big blind (18%) - 5 times out of 139 in other positions (3%) - a total of 14 times out of 183 (7%)Pots won at showdown - 5 out of 6 (83%) Pots won without showdown - 10(Yes, I was playing tight, but just couldn't find a hand in the last half of the game) Congrats to everyone who played, and especially to everyone who placed!

WPBT Tourney

Monday, March 28, 2005

Easter Home Game

Ahhhh Easter. Visions of ham dinner, chocolate eggs, and enough candy to keep all the dentists employed for yet another year. And - if you are from my family - it means yet another NLHE poker home game. We finished dinner at 5:00 so we could start early. Drinks were poured, and the seating was as follows:Seat 1. JBearSeat 2. DoubleLSeat 3. Tactix (I hope if I keep linking him up, he might actually post again) Seat 4. The lovely Mufata (a.k.a. the S.A.Slammer) Seat 5. Joanne1111Seat 6. OJ(noticably missing were Revmod and Billink, who couldn't be with us)Here are the highlights:Game 1. In level 1, I took down a nice pot which gave me an early lead. I had AK in the hole, and we had a family pot when everyone called my pre-flop raise. Flop comes AAA. Could you ask for anything more? I believe that four of us were in the pot until the end, when I check-raised the river and everyone called with made boats. Needless to say, I was not the most popular person at the table after that!In level 2, JBear took down a huge pot by slow playing trip Aces against Mufata's trip queens. However, her luck began to dwindle, and by level 6 she was down to $20 in checks and looked to be the first one out. A true fighter though, she managed to quadruple her $20, and then quadruple it again, putting her right back in the running. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky and ended up being first one out. Ahhh the shame. A few rounds later though, JBear was down to her last few chips again, and we made a deal. She decided she wanted to dye Tactix's hair blue if I would play out the remainder of her chips. It turned out to be a good decision on her part, as I ended up turning her short-stack into a monster and won the game. Mufata ended up taking 3rd, and Tactix took down 2nd place. After taking a cut of the winnings, I was even money as we began the second game. Game 2, Level 1. I don't have too many notes on either game (a.k.a. too much wine) but all I can say is they were certainly picking on me! Tactix and I were alone in one of the first hands when I was dealt pocket Hellmuth's and he called my pre-flop raise. He called my fairly-significant bets all the way down to the river, and sucked out a runner runner flush to my hand that didn't improve. Laughing all the way, I might add. He continued this brutal onslaught calling my three-bet with the hammer on the deal and the flop. Sure that he had a made hand, I checked the turn and so did he. Making a valiant effort to win one hand with the hammer, I bet out on the river, and after pondering for a time, he called. Yes, his Q-high dominated my meager little hand. That all said, DoubleL was the one that I was forced to lay down the most hands too. I couldn't win a single hand against him for the longest time. Maybe it is because he kept winning with hands like this:straightflush

Can't do much against a straight flush. WIth that, he took Mufata out of the game, and on the very next hand I took out Mr. Blue Hair with the nut flush. Since there were just five of us in this round, only the top two places paid, so DoubleL, OJ, and I were battling it out. I must say this was the best game that OJ has played to date. She played her short stack like a pro, but we eventually took it over. DoubleL and I battled back and forth, but I emerged the winner and took first place again. Now if only I could convince them all to come over five nights a week....

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Spam and Other Evils

I remember as a kid one of my favorite meals was Kraft Dinner, peas, and pan-fried Spam. Ick. I shudder to even think of it now. I have since taken culinary classes, worked as a chef, and quite honestly wouldn't recognize KD if it got up and smacked me in the ass. If you want mac & cheese to emerge out of my kitchen, you are going to get fresh radiatore blended with a parmigiano-reggiano sauce. Needless to say, Spam hasn't exactly topped my shopping list since I became an adult. I didn't even know that it was still available. Imagine my surprise then when I saw it sitting among the canned meats and fish as though it belonged there. Rubbing elbows with sockeye salmon, baby shrimp and escargots, terrorizing the "Flakes of" family; chicken, turkey, and ham. Trying desperately to look more appealing than the tin full of jelly-congealed cooked ham, whose package suggests that you should toss a pineapple on top and serve it for Easter Dinner. What really got me though wasn't the fact that you could still buy it, it was the price! Seriously, you can buy a real ham (albeit a small one) for twice the price and stretch it out over four meals and a soup. Is Spam even real meat? I always thought it was composed of what the Hot Dog Manufacturers of America rejected for their product.

Maybe I am just a food snob, but I always regarded Spam as budget fare. Even a can of the aforementioned prime red, water-packed, unsalted sockeye salmon could be purchased for $3.00.

But $4.21? For 340 grams? That works out to $12.40 per kg or $5.62 per pound.

Fresh boneless chicken breast in the same store was $3.49/lb. Top Sirloin Steak was $3.99/lb.

Has Spam reached some sort of cult-status that I am not aware of?Spam

Anyways....

I am obviously lacking for poker content today as I have yet to hit the tables. I am off to do just that though, so hopefully my next rant will involve chips and cards rather than hooves and snouts.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Traveling, Truckin', and Too Much Beer

I went away this weekend, so I am going to attempt to catch up a bit here.

I have been playing less and less poker at PokerStars, and more at Party. It is still too early to determine which site is going to be more profitable for me in the long run, but I have to admit that I am definitely leaning towards Party at this point. Yeah, yeah, I know that everyone has been saying that all along, but I am stubborn and have to find out on my own. I still prefer MTT's and SNG's at Stars, but I am going to be playing most of my ring games over at Party from now on.

The WPBT Leaderboard has been updated, and I was happy to see that I am holding strong at 25th place, despite my terrible play at the HORSE tourney.

That said - I didn't play a single hand of poker this weekend. Due to a prior commitment, I was unable to celebrate St. Paddy's day on Thursday, so Friday I made my way to the local Irish Pub and made up for lost time. I am neither Irish nor Catholic, but I think I deserve honorary status based on my bar tab alone. I had to steal one of the coasters from the bar, and am proud to say that I bumped up the number of guinness sold per second quite considerably:

coaster

For those that don't know, I worked in a bar for 10 years - from my 20th birthday until I turned 30. This was a very unique place, as most of the staff worked there with me for the entire decade. Not a single holiday, anniversary, or birthday passed without at least twenty of us getting together to celebrate. Three years ago the club changed management, and they let go 90% of the staff. Those of us who were invited to stay on either quit, or in my case, took a leave of absense. I haven't seen most of them in the three years since we ceased working together.

Well - Saturday night it was our head bartender's 50th birthday, so we all met up in Banff (well, Canmore actually - right beside Banff) to party. We had one hell of a time, and I have put some scenery pictures I took on my photo page. Everytime I go to the mountains I kick myself for not going more often. It is only a 45 minute drive, so I really don't have an excuse.

Finally - I have to throw a little shameless self-promotion into the mix. I made my debut on Truckin' this month, and am very excited and proud to be a small part of what I believe to be one of the best literary collections available on the internet. If anyone reading this has not yet visited the site, please do yourself a favor and check it out. I write under the name of Julia Vettraino, and welcome any comments either on the Truckin' site or via email. Many thanks again to Pauly, and I hope to be able to contribute more stories in the future.

Monday, March 21, 2005

Back to the Grind

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Snow, Reading, and the WSOP

I hate snow. Yes, I live in Canada. Yes, it snows here a lot. No, even after 33 years, it doesn't grow on you. This past Christmas I received an email from a friend who lives in warmer climes, asking me to send pictures of the snow. I sent a picture of myself with a certain finger raised in the air instead. It is the middle of March, and we are having a snowstorm. We are going to get at least 6 inches by tomorrow night, and probably even more on the weekend. I could probably handle that, except I know that this is not, by far, the last snowfall of the season. Hell, we get snow in June sometimes. Sigh. The only good thing I will say about snow is that it makes being stuck inside much more tolerable. I settled in this morning for another supersatellite on Stars. I am working on collecting as many W$ as I can, which can be used to enter any of their WSOP qualifiers. My initial buy-in on Monday was $2, plus $4 more in re-buy and add-on. I placed in that tournament, and won 33 W$. I played in another today, (using my existing W$ for payment) and won another 33. Seriously, if you aren't doing this, you should be. Those satellites are super-easy to place in, and for $6 real money you have a shot at getting a seat for the main event, $1000 for travel expenses, as well as 9 days accomodation. More news to come on this once I start playing the qualifiers. I am going to grab a blanket, turn on some music, pour a coffee, and settle in to do some reading today. Hope everyone is having a good day. Just don't tell me how warm it is there.

Monday, March 14, 2005

And the winner is....

After 3 hours and 36 minutes, Gdogg takes the title in the WPBT Horse Tournament. Congrats to everyone who played, that was one crazy game. Though I am sure there are a million (well, maybe 92) bad beat stories out there in blogland today, I am simply going to sum up my play in one word:Horrendous. I would play it again in a heartbeat though. The most common phrases (I) heard throughout the evening:"Oh, are we playing stud now?" "I am still playing razz" "When did the level change?""These blind increases are crazy""I only know how to play holdem""What is a blog?""Who is Moonstomp?"Yes, it was a crazy, crazy time. Thanks again to Iggy for arranging it. I am however looking forward to the 30th, when we play NLHE and my world once again makes sense.

Sunday, March 13, 2005

H.O.R.S.E. Tourney Tonight

Next stop on the WPBT - H.O.R.S.E. Tournament on Full Tilt tonight, 9pm EST. This is going to be a hilarious tournament. Fifty-four players registered as of this moment, and I am sure that number will increase quite a bit within the next six hours. My official drink for the tournament tonight? Tang. Yeah, yeah, I know. I should be fired for not drinking something with alcohol content, but I have too much to do tomorrow to risk dragging my ass around for half the day. Besides - believe it or not - I actually play better poker when I am not cut three sheets to the wind ;) Good luck to everyone who is playing tonight, this should be a blast!

Thursday, March 10, 2005

HORSE Tourney and South Park

Well, I am officially entered in the HORSE tournament Sunday night. I didn't think I would be able to play this time, but damn if I can get away with missing anything that involves this crowd, even if I wanted to. (pm - Thanks again, eh? :) Needless to say I am beyond thrilled. These tournaments are always a lot of fun, and my extremely competitive nature is hoping to make this the third in a row that I place in the money. There doesn't appear to be too many entries at this point, however that always seems to be the case until the very last minute with these things. I haven't played HORSE since Rod, Don, and I played it at one of our home games a few months back, but I have been brushing up on my O8 skills this past week. (My bankroll has thanked me, too.) I will have to leave the razz, stud, etc. to chance though, as I don't see many opportunities between now and Sunday night to play them. Of course - if I manage to go out in the first two rounds, I won't have to worry about them at all ;) Anyway, I told Al that I would post my South Park Pic, so without further adieu, here it is:

South Park Jo

I will see if I can get a comparison picture up - scary how close it may actually be!

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Omaha

I have been on a bit of a hiatus from NLHE since the Omaha H/L over at Party has been so lucrative for me. So, hoping the streak continues, I am going to play a $20 O8 MTT on Stars at 7pm EST. tonight. I will write more after the tourney.

Friday, March 04, 2005

WCP, Writing, and the Weekend

Unfortunately, I will not be representing Canada in the World Cup this year. Stolen is my dream of jetting off to London to be filmed live at the final table, competing for my share of the $125k prize pool.

Oh well, C'est la vie.

It was interesting, really. I have never played in a tournament that was strictly heads up competition. I dominated the first player, winning hand after hand. The ironic part was, I actually had good cards most of the time, but I never got to play them becuase he just kept folding. I eliminated him in something like ten minutes. Round two was quite similar, though it took a bit longer. The players to that point were just simply passive. I am pretty disgusted with my play in the third round though. Our starting chips were T6000, and within the first 20 hands I had him down to under T2000. I made a few back-to-back judgement errors which allowed him to tie up the chip count again, and from there I just went straight downhill. I did try sweet talking him into choosing me as the alternate player for the team if he won the competition, but alas, he did not.

I had a blast though, fueled by lager and sweated by Pauly and AlCantHang. Seriously, does it get any better than this? Drinking, playing poker, and having two men in your corner cheering you on. Dayum. (btw Al - you do have me convinced that I need to go to Vegas, now I just have to make it happen.)

I have been writing a lot lately, (though you wouldn't know it by my lack of posting here) which in general makes me a much happier person. For this, I have to send out thanks to someone for the inspiration and moral support you have given me recently, you know who you are. :) I haven't written much in the past year or so, not due to writer's block per se, just quite simply a total lack of inspiration and motivation. That is one of the reasons I started this blog, so I could commit to getting something, anything down on "paper", regardless of the content. Now, I am barely able to sleep at night because I have so many thoughts going on and I can't get type them out fast enough.

I am going to be somewhat incommunicado this weekend, which is a rarity for someone online as often as I am. I will still be checking emails, etc, but I wont be logging on to the poker sites for two whole days. My hands are shaking even as I say it!

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Changes to the site

I am in the process of making some changes to my site, the most recent being the addition of Haloscan. I didn't like the way that it navigated off the current page to read comments, so I thought the pop-up window was a better option. Now that I have done it though, I am not sure I am crazy about it either. The worst part is all of my previously received comments have disappeard.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Playing at Party

I have had an account at Party Poker forever, but haven't played there much. Lately I have been feeling the need to diversify a bit, so I am going to try it out for a while and see what happens. My user name there is the same as at Stars - Joanne1111